Administrator Bio - Buck Sharpton

Vice Chancellor for Research at UAF

Virgil L. (Buck) Sharpton was named vice chancellor for research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in May 2006. Sharpton joined the UAF faculty in 1998 with a joint appointment between the Geophysical Institute and the Department of Geology and Geophysics and was awarded tenure in 2000. In 2001, he was awarded one of six presidential professorships across the University of Alaska statewide system and held the title of president’s professor of remote sensing. In his current position as vice chancellor for research, he assists the chancellor in setting the research agenda at UAF. He oversees the Center for Research Services, the Geophysical Institute, the International Arctic Research Center, the Office of Electronic Miniaturization, the Institute of Arctic Biology and various research programs.  Sharpton serves as the university representative to the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States, the Inland Northwest Research Alliance and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

Prior to joining UAF, Sharpton was senior staff scientist at the Lunar Planetary Institute affiliated with the NASA Johnson Space Center, where he served for 14 years. Sharpton sits on a variety of NASA review panels as well as state and local advisory boards.

Sharpton earned a B.S. with high honors in geology from Grand Valley State University in 1979 and a Ph.D. and Sc.M. in geological sciences from Brown University in 1984 and 1981 respectively. He was a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council postdoctoral fellow for the Geological Survey of Canada from 1984 to 1986.

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